Semi-Charmed Life

Snowboarding Camp: Day 2

Where there's a will, there's a way . . .

My friends decided to skip out on the second day today because rain was in the forecast. They were my ride to the mountain, since my car is pretty much a junker and all thanks to an uncooperative transmission. As luck would have it, there is a way to get to Mountain Creek via public transportation. I decided that if it was not raining when I woke up, I would trek it to the mountain via bus from Port Authority.

It was still dark when I woke up so I couldn't really tell how the weather was going to be. All I knew was that it wasn't wet out, so that was my green light to go. I woke up really early at 5:30am because I had to hop on the subway from my house in Brooklyn and trek it to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan to catch the bus at 7:30am.

The instructor I got today was mad chill. The group consisted of the instructor, Scott, and three of us. A nice small group, which I thought was great because that allowed Scott to pay more individual attention to us as we hit different features.

The first instructor I had yesterday, Matt, was a college student who was studying in Rome and planned to transfer to Montreal so he could teach and study at the same time. We also found out he was sponsored by Nike when one of the guys in my group asked him where he got his boots. He had Nike everything . . . board (not sure if it was just Nike decals or an actual Nike board, boots, pants and jacket. He showed us how to take basic things like rails, boxes and jumps.

At noon, we switched instructors and had this guy named Jan (pronounced YON). Dude was INTENSE. He was really into the pep talks. Imagine Tony Robbins as a snowboarding drill sergeant, loaded up on half a case of Red Bull and that's pretty much Jan. We didn't really work on anything specifically . . . his style was more of just pushing us to try things. He also kept on drilling into our heads that we have to ollie properly, and even pulled us to the side and had us ollie in place until he was satisfied.

While both Matt and Jan were very patient and encouraging, I liked today's lesson the best so far. Scott asked us if there was anything in particular we wanted to work on, and we all told him that we did not. So the first thing he suggested then was that we work on ollie'ing off of a jump and hike it up over and over to practice. He had us hike it back up while he stood at the top of the jump to analyze our movement. It was extremely tiring and somewhat frustrating because after making lots of attempts, Scott was telling me that while I was taking the jump at good speed, I was still just bringing my legs up as opposed to ollie'ing by popping off the tail end.

After what seemed like half an hour of hiking, we were all sweaty and tired but I was finally starting to get it. The other guys in the group were tired of hiking though and wanted to finish the rest of the run so we went and did that. Later on in the day, Scott has us do a lot of work on the box. We hiked up this one box for what seemed like 45 minutes, working on boardsliding it. Again, he stood right by the box and analyzed our movements and told us what we were doing wrong and what we were doing right each time.

By the end of that practice session on the box, I was able to boardslide on the box and finish it riding switch. This was purely accidental, but I also somehow managed to nail it frontside (misnomer in my opinion because your back is actually turned so that you're facing the mountain) and land in switch.

By the end of the day, I was getting a hang of ollie'ing off the jumps and at times I'd get some pretty huge air. The first time I timed everything right and caught some "big" air I was scared because I had never been that high before. I knew though that I was started to get a hang of it because my landings were okay and even if I didn't nail the landing, I was usually able to save myself and move on. Jumping was also becoming less of a blur. In the past, whenever I took a jump it just felt like everything was a huge blur . . . hell I don't even know how to describe it. All I know was that it felt like I was never in control. Now I'm slowly starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of being airborne.

As a bonus, I also finally nailed the battleship. It looks something like this:

I was so happy I nailed it. It always seemed so impossible to me. But I guess nailing a new trick or feature is like losing your virginity . . . you think it's never going to happen but once you do it, you wonder what the hell was the big deal anyway?

It was a great day overall. The weather held up pretty nicely up until around 2:30pm, which was only half an hour short of the original end time so everything worked out great today. My only gripe was the long commute from Brooklyn to Mountain Creek . . . but hey, you can't always have it everything.

All in all I'm very happy with my progression so far. My friends have been asking me what they've been teaching me and what kind of tricks I've been learning. To be honest, the real difference these coaches make is not in the instruction, but in the encouragement they give you. It feels like when they're around, I'm more confident in taking features I've never had the courage to take in the past. I'm sure a lot of people say that you don't need lessons to learn this stuff and that you can practice all this stuff on your own, and that's true. But I'm living proof of going from someone who would not dare go on terrain park features and busted his ass when he tried, to someone who can now confidently take on a lot of the medium sized features at the terrain park.

The results are real, and if you're anything like I was then taking lessons will definitely up your game.

Anyway, enough talking about snowboarding. I can't wait for day 3!

Snowboarding Camp: Day 1

I am on an insane high right now . . .

I just got back from my first day of snowboarding camp. I signed up for the MLK weekend Switch Camp at Mountain Creek and just finished my first day of the camp. Today's session ranks up there as one of my all time favorite riding days.

So what was so special about it? To be honest, since I have nothing similar to compare it to I really don't know if it was the program itself that was great or if it was because I was in a more structured learning environment. What I've long realized though is that I learn better in anything when I'm in a structured learning environment as opposed to trying to learn on my own.

I had a great day today because I finally pushed past my plateau. I feel like I progressed to a point where I was no longer getting any better. I have friends who are into trying things at the terrain park, but every time I go I chicken out and don't hit any of the features. I didn't know if I was ever going to get any better at that rate. I knew most of it was mental.

The great thing about signing up for something like this is that once you sign up and commit your hard earned cash, you feel obligated to learn. I went with two friends and I'm guessing the three of us were probably the oldest in the camp. They broke everyone up into different groups, depending on your skill level and also your age. I guess we were clustered with the "adult" group, which was 6 of us and our instructor.

Our instructor started us off with the basics . . . taking jumps off a kicker, 50/50's on boxes on rails, and just working on our ollies. By the end of the day I was able to hit most of the features, and while not exactly aesthetically pleasing, I was extremely happy because I never would have thought that I'd be able to hit any of this stuff. For the longest time I was scared stiff of rails because I've hurt myself pretty badly in the past. As far as jumping off of kickers go, I used to have a huge mental block that forced me to speed check way too much whenever I attempted them, which resulted in me never being able to clear the knuckle and hit the landing zone. And that was when I was able to muster up the courage to even attempt them. For the most part, I rarely tried because I just didn't think I could do it.

Being in a small group, we each took turns trying stuff the instructors told us to do, and gradually with each run we all got better. With an instructor, I really had no choice but to make an attempt because a) I'm paying for it and b) I'd look like the biggest wuss ever. It also helped that the instructors were very patient and encouraging. The second half of the day our group had a different instructor who pushed us very hard.

So am I happy because I think I'm super good at snowboarding now because of 1 day of snowboarding camp?

No.

I'm happy because the feeling of pushing past this plateau and breaking this barrier which I thought I could never break is a huge rush. I love the feeling of improving and getting better at something I love, especially when there are concrete results.

I only wish that I knew more people who were more focused on progressing instead of staying in their comfort zone. A lot of snowboarders I know tend to reach a certain point where they can ride pretty well, and may even learn to ride switch, but then they're content to just keep taking run after run of bombing down the mountain and never choose to progress any further.

That was me before.

Right now I'm just hoping that after this three day camp is over, I'll be much better than I was before and be able to accomplish some of my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the season. Actually, I think I might have already accomplished some of those goals today!

9 Life Lessons

I was reading someone's blog entry on life lessons and it got me thinking. What have I learned in my twenty semi-years of life? Let's see if I can even reach 10.

1. Always square your debts. Just like every other major credit institution in America, I assign a mental fico score to each person. Some people I'm comfortable lending money to. Others, not so much. Unpaid debts leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, and I'd rather not sour any of my friendships by being "that guy" that always borrows $10 here and $20 there but never pays people back.

2. Three point check before going anywhere. Keys. Wallet. Phone.

3. If you're sitting in the back of a car and the person sitting shotgun leaves, if you're the only other person in the car it is you are obligated to sit in shotgun. Unless your friend also happens to be working as a cab driver. In which case, it'd probably still be a good idea to sit shotgun.

4. Open bar does not mean "don't bring cash." Always tip.

5. "This too shall pass." Things always work themselves out. Shit can't stay bad forever. This is an obvious truth, but when you're in the moment, it's something we tend to forget.

6. Family is important. I have not always been the best son or the best brother, but I'm learning.  It was foolish of me to treat my parents and my younger brothers the way I did in the past, but the past is the past and there's nothing I can do about that. What matters now is that I realize how important my family is and to treat them right.

7. Friends aren't everything. When I was younger, my life revolved around my friends. I don't think I've ever been about me until the last couple of years. Friends are very important of course, but not to the exclusion of your family and more importantly, yourself.

8. Read a fucking book. Seriously.

9. You can spend all your energy trying to convince someone of something, but in the end people always have to reach that conclusion for themselves.

Okay, I'm sure I can maybe come up with one more to make it an even ten but nine is a good a number as any so I'll leave it at that. I also have to head to the gym before it closes . . .

Dear God

Read this in the morning:

There was a man who worked for the United States Post Office whose job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses.

One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. The letter read:

Dear God,
I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension.
Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment. Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?
Sincerely, Edna
---------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>>>>>>>
The postal worker was touched. He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars.

By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman. The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends.

Christmas came and went. A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened.

It read:

Dear God,
How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift.
By the way, there was $4 missing. I think it might have been those bastards at the post office.
Sincerely, Edna

I know it's supposed to be a joke, but this was my first reaction:

"God gets too much credit and man does not get enough."

Am I just hopelessly humorless?

14 Thoughts on Advice Giving and Receiving

Link

14 Thoughts on Advice Giving and ReceivingTyler Cowen discusses the economics of advice and makes two interesting claims:

You don't know what a person really thinks until you hear his or her advice. Along these lines, if you really want to know what a person thinks, ask for advice and he or she will open up.

and

Often we do not trust people until we hear their advice.  We suspect in any case that they wish to control us, and until we know what they have in mind, we remain wary.  Sometimes it is necessary to give advice -- even pointless advice -- to establish trust.

I have thought a great deal about giving and receiving advice. Below are 14 thoughts to add to the mix. I believe #12 is the most insightful (it comes from Chris Yeh).

1. Sometimes people ask for advice but really just want your attention. People like talking things through. Though it might appear they want explicit advice ("So I'm thinking about taking this new job, but I'm torn about the benefits package") what they actually want is someone to hear them out, and perhaps probe a bit, but not prescribe a solution. Books on gender say men usually try to play Mr. Fix-It right away while women are better listeners.

2. We overvalue advice on difficult decisions and undervalue advice on easy ones. So say some studies. During the college admissions process, kids get a million opinions on an admittedly important and difficult situation, but in the end receive so many contradictory thoughts that they end up confused. On the other hand, when faced with where to go for lunch, people would do better to ask around a bit for a recommendation.

3. "Just get started" is the most popular advice dished to aspiring entrepreneurs. But it's a debatable point.

4. Advice is a form of nostalgia. For this reason, we should view advice from others primarily as an opportunity for greater insight into the mind of the advice-giver, rather than as something useful to be acted upon ourselves.

5. "Passion" and "Voice" are two of the most frequent and most vague pieces of advice. Career counselors tell young people to follow their passion and writing coaches tell writers to find their voice. Both are horribly misunderstood.

6. Beware of advice from meta-careerists. That is, beware of advice from someone who is a professional advice-giver (a full-time self-help author, say), rather than someone in the trenches.

7. When giving advice, include the word "because." It increases eventual absorption, regardless of what you say after the word "because."

8. When you give advice, give the person options, and let them choose the best path. People hate to be told what to do -- need to make them feel empowered to make the decision for themselves.

9. When you seek advice, should you consult the domain expert or someone who knows you best? Your mother may know you best but she may not know your industry. The domain expert knows the market but doesn't know your individual preferences or history. Conclusion: Get advice first from the domain expert to get a model and assess your choices. Then consult the person who really knows you to understand which choice makes most sense for you.

10. People who are "unconsciously competent" are not the best people to ask for advice. True experts often can't explain what they're doing and why.

11. Actionable advice is best advice. Saying "speak up more" to someone who doesn't talk in meetings is not actionable; saying "say at least three things in the meeting" is more clearly actionable.

12. When you give advice, it's easy to fan the embers but hard to strike a new fire. So listen carefully to their situation and find some aspect of it that you can build upon and emphasize. This will result in best outcome, rather than trying to instill an entirely new idea or some concept that's not already part of their framework.

13. Even if you know the other person is biased, studies show you still don't discount that bias enough. Your car mechanic wants to sell you more parts, and you know that he wants to do that, but we still don't discount his advice as much as we should.

14. Bottom Line: It's fruitful to think about advice on the meta level before engaging in the critical business of asking for advice, or the tricky business of dishing it out.

Any thoughts?